The invention relates to a machine for adhesively binding pages, sheets, sets of pages or sections in order to present them in a unitary assembled form while at the same time facilitating arrangement and consultation of the pages.
More specifically, the invention is concerned with means for the control and operation of such machines.
As used in the trade such binding machines operating with the application of adhesive are so arranged that a motor means causes reciprocation of a holder in the form of a gripper carriage past different operating stations.
Generally a machine designed in this manner comprises a first, loading station at which a group of pages or sections is manually inserted between the jaws of the gripper on the carriage.
After the loading station there is a routing station which comprises a rotating member in order to cut into the spine of the stack of pages as the latter is moved along by the carriage. Such a station is also designed to cut glue grooves in the back face.
The routing station is followed by a gluing station at which the back face is coated with a layer of adhesive product which is generally applied in a liquid state after being melted.
After this gluing station the carriage moves the stack of gripped pages into alignment with an encasing station in order to align the stack of sheets with a cover which is pressed into contact with the routed and glued back face in order to ensure the fixation thereof. The encasing station is, generally, placed in alignment with a discharge conveyor. Such an encasing station comprises a table, which is able to be moved out of the way, and jaws, in the form of blades, adapted to press the cover on the two surfaces of the sheets in the parts thereof adjacent to the back.
In machines of this type the maximum production rate, that is to say the number of bound products able to be turned out per hour, directly depends on the selection of the motor means used for a maximum thickness of sheets or sections to be united. This power of the motor is selected in order to take into account the conditions of operation of the routing and groove cutting station which is the station where the greatest amount of motor power is required.
It will be clear that in order to obtain a higher rate of production it is possible to design the machine with a more powerful motor. However such a modification inevitably leads to a higher purchase price of the machine, an increase in the overall size of the machine and an increase in the electrical power needed by the user of the machine.
A further point to be noted is that the conditions of use of such machines make it clear that it is not often that they are regularly used for the binding of printed products which have an identical thickness close to the maximum thickness. In fact it is more often the case that the user will have to employ his machine for binding sets of pages having different thicknesses and more especially with thicknesses lower than the value representing the maximum thickness with which the machine is capable of coping.
Thus in all those cases in which the machine is used on sets of pages with a thickness less than the maximum possible thickness the hourly production rate is not at a maximum, since the power of the motor means is not fully adapted to suit the work to be performed to bind such sets of pages.